[Campaign] Dark Troll custom race

[Limitteditemeater]

So I've already previously asked for suggestions of the other two custom races I am creating but I haven't yet for the Dark Troll race I am creating. Each race like in the base game has a theme Centaur is low health and are focusing on brute strength with a little bit of caster support. Harpys are low health and damage but can cause chaos with magic and are of cource mostly flying which is a strength and a weakness.

I'm not 100% sure about the dark troll strength/weaknesses I'm thinking of giving them a focus on piercing range damage and making their spellcasters focus on more voodoey magic aka enemy debuffs and a couple of straight damaging spells. Any suggestions on units and spells?

 

[Pr0nogo]

If you're going to make a race that is primarily dependent on one or two types of damage, you should have a spell that converts enemy armor types temporarily to something weaker to that damage type.

 

[Limitteditemeater]

If you're going to make a race that is primarily dependent on one or two types of damage, you should have a spell that converts enemy armor types temporarily to something weaker to that damage type.

I like that idea quite a bit. Definitely plays into a bit of a voodoo theme as well.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Voodoo Doll ideas: Creates a voodoo doll that targets a unit, linking the unit and the doll at any distance.
* Magic (buffs, debuffs or single-target spells) cast on the doll is cast on the linked unit regardless of range.
** Doll has the same stats as the target (via triggers) and damage done to the doll is done to the linked unit.
** If the doll has a fixed amount of HP, it is ethereal and all spells cast on the doll are cast on the linked unit.
* Doll has a fixed amount of spells, automatically targeting the linked unit (e.g. the doll has abilities called Cripple / Abolish Magic / Sleep / Rejuvenation, but clicking them causes the spell to be cast via dummy units on the linked unit instead of requesting a target).
* Doll can be used to cast Finger of Pain on the linked unit a limited number of times before the doll dies.
* Commands given to the doll (Move, Patrol, Stop, etc.) are repeated by the linked unit relative to its position.
* If the linked unit kills his own doll, he is healed and all debuffs are removed, the caster takes damage and loses mana.
* Caster loses maximum mana for every doll he summons (regained when the doll dies or is dismissed).

Zombie Servant: Puts the target unit to sleep. If the unit is not woken up before the spell ends, it falls under the caster's control but loses all its abilities.

 

[Limitteditemeater]

Voodoo Doll ideas: Creates a voodoo doll that targets a unit, linking the unit and the doll at any distance.
* Magic (buffs, debuffs or single-target spells) cast on the doll is cast on the linked unit regardless of range.
** Doll has the same stats as the target (via triggers) and damage done to the doll is done to the linked unit.
** If the doll has a fixed amount of HP, it is ethereal and all spells cast on the doll are cast on the linked unit.
* Doll has a fixed amount of spells, automatically targeting the linked unit (e.g. the doll has abilities called Cripple / Abolish Magic / Sleep / Rejuvenation, but clicking them causes the spell to be cast via dummy units on the linked unit instead of requesting a target).
* Doll can be used to cast Finger of Pain on the linked unit a limited number of times before the doll dies.
* Commands given to the doll (Move, Patrol, Stop, etc.) are repeated by the linked unit relative to its position.
* If the linked unit kills his own doll, he is healed and all debuffs are removed, the caster takes damage and loses mana.
* Caster loses maximum mana for every doll he summons (regained when the doll dies or is dismissed).

Zombie Servant: Puts the target unit to sleep. If the unit is not woken up before the spell ends, it falls under the caster's control but loses all its abilities.

I like the doll idea quite a bit not 100% sure how I would trigger all of it but I will work on that when I get up to the first map that contains dark trolls. Really like the Zombie servant as well since you could definitely be strategic about that spell. Although a concern of miene is if you just stacked an army of these casters and just cast the spell on all the units.... Might need to be a hero only or long cast time. Like how with my mind control unit that just straight up charms they have high mana but the spell costs a ton.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Yeah, the high-end spells would be for the heroes. Casters would have lower-level spells that involve potions or something.


Gri-Gris (Item): Grants the caster a random buff on use.

Witch Doctor's Cauldron: Like a Moon Well, but for multiple spells. Has several autocast buffs, but only one can be used at a time (disables other spells until it runs out of mana, has an "Empty Cauldron" ability that resets mana to zero, re-enabling the other spells and restoring mana once the spell is chosen). Spells: Berserk, Bloodlust, Heal, etc.

Deathproof (Active): Target unit gains 99 armor. Counts the number of attacks made against the target while the buff is active. When the spell wears off, the unit takes damage proportional to the number of attacks received.

Possessed by Loa: Calls down a Loa into the body of an allied unit, giving it random combat bonuses (e.g. Snake gives it poison attacks and increased speed, Bear gives Cleaving Attack and increased damage, etc.), but making the unit attack enemies uncontrollably until the spell wears off.

Evil Fog (Active): Targets an area. All units in the area get splash damage and have their vision reduced to zero until they leave the area or the fog clears.

Magic Mushrooms (Active): Targets an area. Reduces the accuracy of every enemy in the area and creates an illusion with Evasion for each one.

Felwood Brew (Active): Targets a unit. Target unit is Dizzy and has Drunken Haze, but has greatly decreased cooldowns and increased mana regen.

 

[Limitteditemeater]

I like the suggestions so far ; p definitely gonna include most if not all of them. I'm thinking of only giving the casters and 1 hero or two the vodoo abils and giving the basic axe throwers more physical abils. Thinking of giving the basic axe thrower an instant damage spell that also reduces a bit of armour. Also, I think I nice idea for air would be the spirit wyverns from rexxar campaign but with different stats and abils.

 

[cleavinghammer]

And bats.

Spirit Wyvern:
Enter the Spirit Realm (Channeling): Targets a unit. The unit and the caster both gain 20% Evasion and -20% accuracy every 3 seconds and become Banished if the spell finishes channeling (18 seconds channeling).


Bat:
Vampirise (Channeling): Clings to an enemy air unit and drains its health. See the Cling ability from this map.
Shriek (Active): Stuns all flying units and reveals all invisible units around the Bat's location.

Campfire: Can store a corpse and convert it to spells or items (healing, buff, etc.). Costs 1 lumber to build.

 

[noob]

"low health and are focusing on brute strength"
Seems quite vulnerable to spells and other similar sources of alpha damage.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe have one of their casters give a mass spell block. That sounds like good voodoo.

 

[Pr0nogo]

Could deal damage to casters equal to mana spent. I don't remember if the Faerie Dragon is already like that, but this would be a single target debuff, like Soul Burn from the Firelord, except instead of silencing it just damaged the caster with 1 point of magic damage per 1 point of mana spent.

 

[Trill]

Pure Voodoo sounds boring, to me at least. Jungle trolls already do Voodoo. Not to say they wouldn't have some, just not as main focus, IMHO.
Dark Trolls live close to Night Elves and Furbolgs, they would be more druidic if anything.
They are also stealthy and sneaky.

Consider the following:

Dark Trolls focus on terrain control and misdirection.
Use voodoo-controlled wisps to create temporary (but long-lasting) tree groves (using NightElfBuild animation).
Said groves can be garrisoned like Burrows, and also regenerate health of units inside them.
Now, Groves have regenerating health, can be upgraded to have some auras, etc. However, they are summoned like a Tornado, i.e. the Wisp must channel to make a grove. This would have pretty long range, so you can hide the Wisp behind some trees. Enemies will have to either focus on destroying the Grove, or hunt down the Wisp.

The units could be like this:

Basic tier:
Shadow - basic combat unit. Throws axes. Has short range, like Huntress. Gains increased range when garrisoning.
Dark Wisp - has Create Grove. Can be upgraded to have Blink. May have a limit to how many you can have at any given time.

Casters:
Shadow Weaver - primary support caster. Can cast short-duration Invisibility, Mirror Image, and something else. Main role is to hide Dark Wisps, but can help army by visually increasing its size by spamming Mirror Image.
Deceiver - can summon fog, that prevents shooting INTO it, but greatly slows movement speed of anyone affected.

Advanced units:
Berserker - melee unit with two-handed weapon. Has discount version of Avatar that gives him some extra damage and magic immunity, allowing him to quickly run down and chop to pieces enemies trapped in Deceiver's fog.

 

[cleavinghammer]

According to the wiki they live underground, so some earth magic too.